Many yogis believe that yoga and politics are disparate worlds, that yoga is too pure to be tainted by politics. That’s crazy talk. Anywhere people and relationships exist, politics exists by default: somebody at some time will have to make decisions about something vital to everyday life. And the resulting actions will affect everyone.
Sharon Gannon and David Life of Jivamukti, along with a few entertaining folks at Elephant Journal, often express similar sentiments. But where is the rest of yoga in Western politics?
Many consider politics to be a dirty game of money and corruption, and they don’t want any part of it. I can understand the disgust. Yet I also find that concept of politics to be limiting and damaging. Actively choosing not to engage your politics is itself a political decision. You’re deciding that you’re A-OK with social and economic turmoil, that you’re A-OK with humans abusing one another and everything that lives on the planet. Ask yourself: Do I avoid politics because I benefit from the political culture being the way it is now?
We need a drastic (re)visioning of politics, because politics can serve our higher selves—provided we make a conscious effort in that direction. Part of that (re)visioning depends on our ability to (re)define politics so that it operates in the realm of “the politics of enlightenment,” a phrase I’ve mindfully stolen from the title of Robert Thurman’s 1992 book The Politics of Enlightenment: A Handbook for the Cool Revolution (now published as Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness). The politics of enlightenment I’m interested in is not Buddhist-oriented (as Thurman’s) or devoted to the philosophical movement of the 17th and 18th centuries, which still needs serious unpacking in the 21st century. Yet elements of each may surface from time to time. After all, my stand doesn’t exist in isolation. It grows out of and feeds from various wells.
Oh, and most importantly: The politics of enlightenment doesn’t tow the lines of political parties or belong to any one nation of people or religion.
Yoga is not above politics, it IS politics. This is a call to action. Think about it. Namaste.
